


Unexpected

by Lukutoukka



Category: You Could Make a Life Series - Taylor Fitzpatrick
Genre: Canon Compliant, Friendship, Julius POV, POV Outsider, i wish i spoke Finnish bc i'm totally under-using it, that is to say: i do not use it at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21928963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukutoukka/pseuds/Lukutoukka
Summary: Julius isn't sure why he's surprised that not everything goes as expected.
Relationships: Bryce Marcus/Jared Matheson, Julius Halla & Jared Matheson
Comments: 10
Kudos: 57





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thine_Everlasting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thine_Everlasting/gifts).



> This is my holiday exchange fic for Thine_Everlasting – I hope you like it!
> 
> My thanks go to ilovetextingandscones for the organisation & the people who have beta-read this for me: [Denois](https://archiveofourown.org/users/denois), [Dizzy](https://dizzy-redhead.tumblr.com) & Vee! All the mistakes still in there are all mine ;) Let me know if I missed a tag.
> 
> Happy Holidays!

Julius is no kind of a language-person and he feels like that is absolutely reasonable. Very few hockey players are really language-people. Most of his teammates only speak one language – English. Or, you know, pretend to speak English. With some of them, Julius really isn’t sure if they know any big words at all. 

Despite his teammates’ varying success with their mother tongue, he still feels like people look down on him and his patchy English, and he feels self conscious about it a lot. He speaks three languages! Well, sort of.

Still, it’s frustrating when he can’t always follow instructions from the coach, let alone follow (non-hockey) conversations around him, when people speak fast and with accents and don’t pronounce stuff properly and generally don’t always seem to care whether he gets what they’re saying or not. 

(Although that is still better than being treated like he’s stupid. He’s not. Or at least, he’s no more stupid than the average hockey player. No shade.)

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that besides the shared rookie experiences et cetera et cetera, the fact that Jared manages to include him, catches it often when Julius is floundering and explains stuff in that casual way that makes it not a big deal, all that is also a big reason that Julius latches onto Jared.

The fact that Jared is hilariously salty is just an added bonus.

* * *

Jared is decidedly _not_ salty, hilariously or not, about his fiancé. It’s a little unexpected.

That isn’t to say that Julius expected Jared to drag his fiancé every chance he got, but he… well, he kind of expected Jared to drag his fiancé every chance he got.

Actually though, nothing about Jared’s fiancé is expected, starting with the fact that the fiancé exists in the first place. And is like, a dude. A dude that Jared somehow never mentioned before – although to be fair, Julius didn’t really mention Noora either. But still. 

Jared has a goddamn _fiancé._

Who the _hell_ gets married at _nineteen_?

He considers asking someone on the team if getting married this early is more common in North America than it is in Finland, but decides against it. If he asked, people might find out about Jared, and Julius had figured out that Jared didn’t want this to be known even before Jared explicitly told him so. Google, on the other hand, is kind of helpful _and_ anonymous and tells Julius that nineteen is indeed not a very common age to get married. 

Julius is _dying_ to know more about this whole thing, but he’s also polite, okay, he does not go around asking private questions, especially not ones he wouldn’t want to be asked if the shoe was on the other foot. Plus, he knows how straining long-distance relationships can be, and invasive questions are absolutely not helpful, so he’s keeping his curiosity under wraps.

It’s cool though, the whole not-talking-about-private-matters seems to suit Jared as much as it does Julius, so he manages. Plus, at least Jared’s telling him when he’s speaking with his fiancé, trusts Julius with this information, so that’s cool.

* * *

So maybe it’s a little invasive to basically invite himself to the Matheson Christmas, but he’s learned quickly that Jared just genuinely doesn’t remember stuff like that, and he’d much rather spend Christmas with Jared and his family than like, with Rogers or Jacobi or someone else from the team, let alone _alone_.

Christmas had been shaping up to suck balls, his homesickness ever growing in the weeks beforehand, and now there’ll at least be Jared.

* * *

He’s regretting keeping his curiosity regarding the fiancé under wraps when he gets into the car with Jared, on their way to Christmas with the Mathesons and Jared’s fiancé and mother-in-law (or future mother-in-law, whatever) and Jared acts weird.

Jared is obviously nervous about something.

Okay, so maybe Julius didn’t notice straight away that Jared’s nervous, but they did just play an awful game and Jared’s not exactly wearing his emotions on his sleeves, but they just reached Calgary and Jared acts nervous. Maybe they should have talked about this more. Julius didn’t think this was a big deal, but with Jared acting like this, it is obviously a bigger deal than Julius realised it would be. What the hell.

“My fiancé’s a flame,” is what tips Julius off. Well, at first it confuses him, because what? Is that some kind of slang? Did he mishear what Jared said? But then Jared clarifies: “My fiancé plays for the Calgary Flames.” and oh.

Okay.

This is somewhat surprising, but also not, considering Jared’s a hockey player and originally from Calgary and he spends much of his time with other hockey players. It stands to reason that he would know players from the Flames. Julius is pretty certain that Jared played at least with Rossi, if not more of the current Flames. Just–

“Who?” Julius asks, and he’s not entirely sure what he expects the answer to be. He’s certainly not expecting the answer to be _Bryce Marcus_. Jared word-vomiting all over the place and driving too fast also isn’t expected, but seriously. Nothing about this fiancé had been expected, so of course Julius should have expected the identity of said fiancé to be the most unexpected.

But seriously. Bryce Marcus.

* * *

He thinks about it for a while.

“Bryce Marcus?” he asks, a little for himself, because Marcus does not seem like Jared’s type. At all. But he tries to be supportive, especially since that show of nervousness is so unlike Jared, so he adds: “Hottest Flame.” It’s not even a lie, he’s got perfectly functioning eyes and Marcus is kinda good looking, if one is into that.

Jared takes his comment the way it was intended, and then he turns right back around and says: “I mean, obviously, though. There’s a reason I’m marrying him, and it isn’t just his hockey.” and now Julius is thinking about why Jared would marry Marcus, what he sees in him, and … well. 

Julius manages a thumbs-up to Jared’s request to be cool, but he kind of isn’t. It’s a lot, okay? Jared really should have told him earlier than ten minutes before their arrival. But now Jared’s parking the car and they’re going to go up and meet Bryce Marcus. Who Jared is engaged to.

What. The. Hell.

* * *

The whole thing is super surreal.

Julius feels a little like he was suddenly deposited in an M.C. Escher painting, like he’s walking down the stairs but ending up on the top floor.

Marcus’ mom hugs Jared like he’s, well, family, and introduces herself as Elaine, which isn’t any weirder than first name-ing other friends’ parents, which is to say it’s kind of weird. But it’s a known kind of weird.

Jared moving around this apartment with Flames and Bryce Marcus memorabilia everywhere like he belongs here is weird. 

Jared asking how the Flames game is going and then putting a boo-ing ban on the Flames is weirder.

Realising that Jared kind of belongs more into this Flames decorated apartment in Calgary than the one he has in Edmonton is super weird.

Everything sits wrong, and Julius can’t even put a finger on why, exactly, that is.

The worst of it is that Jared obviously picks up on Julius feeling weird and Julius can’t even explain what’s going on, because of the language barrier. 

English _sucks_.

Well, he can at least make sure that Jared knows it’s not weird because he’s homophobic.

It’s just… Bryce Marcus.

The internet did not have a lot of kind things to say about off-ice Bryce Marcus.

Julius is judging everyone involved in this so hard right now.

* * *

So Elaine is very nice and Jared’s family is great, but the more time Julius spends around Marcus, the more he feels justified in disliking him.

Marcus is acting weird around him, Julius can tell. Plus, Jared’s dad doesn’t like him either. He’s still Mister Matheson to Bryce, but Julius gets to call him “Don” straight away. So.

It kind of helps that Elaine is seriously great and Bryce is kind of adorably in love with Jared.

Still. He’s not sold on this yet. Julius spends a lot of time with Don, because it seems like a great place to not run into Bryce. Plus, spending time with Don means Julius gets Jared stories. It’s amazing. It’s also pretty clear where Jared got his everything from.

Don seems like, totally reasonable, and he does not like Bryce.

But of course Jared can read Julius like an open book and manages to drag Julius away from the others to call him on his behaviour. 

Julius feels pretty chewed out at the end there. He wouldn’t want to be judged from what people can read on the internet about him. On the other hand, his wikipedia page doesn’t have a _Controversies_ section. Still, he generally trusts Jared’s judgement, so he resolves to be better about this Bryce Marcus thing. 

Even if he punched an Oilers fan.

* * *

Boxing day starts off weird – Jared throws him out to have sex! Unbelievable. Okay, so it’s not like he’s standing on the street with nothing to do, but still.

Brunch with Elaine is pretty cool, even though she lets him get drunk on Mimosas, which isn’t really her fault, but also isn’t not her fault. Either way, having a hangover in the middle of the day sucks.

Jared cooks, which is cool and probably not, like, an apology for throwing Julius out to have sex, but whatever. Julius will take it. Julius didn’t realise that Jared could cook, but now that he knows, he will make Jared cook more in Edmonton, because the food is awesome and he deserves it, after Jared sprung Bryce on him without a warning.

The atmosphere during dinner on the other hand is rather awkward. And then… Then Bryce busts out all that emotional stuff, and urgh. Julius would have to be a complete asshole to not seriously give Bryce a chance after that.

Also, he needs to apologise to Jared. Again. Ugh.

* * *

Julius and Bryce end up on the same team for the All Star Game – Bryce is “drafted” later than Julius, which would be flattering, if the draft actually was about performance, and not popularity. 

Bryce kind of sticks to Julius all weekend. Julius doesn’t really mind, because at least he knows Bryce better than most of the others that are there, plus, Bryce really knows what he’s talking about when it comes to hockey. Aside from his hockey commentary Bryce is quieter than Julius expected. He’s not sure if that’s because Bryce is kind of quiet or because the others are tolerating Bryce more than anything else.

Nonetheless, the more time he spends with Bryce, the more he kind of understands what Jared might see in Bryce. So when a giggly John Steward tries and fails to execute a spin, he leans into Bryce and says: “I would ask if he’s spinning because he had too much from that mystery bottle that is going around, but I have seen him try that in games, and actually it looks better now.” 

Bryce spits the sip of whatever he’s drinking back into his cup and splutters, somewhere between laughter and coughing. Julius is very proud.

* * *

By the end of the weekend, Julius has negotiated for more than a weeks worth of home cooked meals by Jared, courtesy of Julius putting up with drunk Bryce, and Julius has Bryce’s number in his phone and vice versa. 

He thinks they might be friends, kind of, and counts the whole experience as a win.

(Their team also won the All Star Game, but nbd. It’s not like it counts for anything really.)

* * *

Julius is definitely glad he’s just kind-of-friends with Bryce and not at the regularly-texting-level of friends. Dealing with Jared while the wedding planning is going on is exhausting enough: Jared keeps asking his opinion on stuff and then proceeds to not take anything of what Julius says into account.

He stands by the cupcakes though, they would allow a variety of flavours. And they look pretty.

* * *

Jared and Julius don’t really talk about that squishy emotional stuff, if they can help it, so while Julius is in Finland, he only gets barebones updates about the wedding. It all seems a little  _ more _ than he expected after Jared’s “maybe we’ll just elope” comment during Christmas. When he, as tactful as his English permits, asks what brought on the three tier cake, he gets “spite” back as the only answer, which isn’t particularly helpful.

(He sends Jared a picture of a three tier cake stand with cupcakes.)

The wedding itself is fine. Julius doesn’t have a lot of experience with weddings, so it’s not like he can compare it to others, but he can follow the ceremony, the company is good, the food is fine, and basically everybody is super emotional, which Julius figures follows right after “nuptials” on the list of wedding requirements anyway.

He’d been prepared for Jared-tears and awkward show of emotions, but he wasn’t quite prepared for the handsiness between Jared and Bryce after the ceremony. Looking back, he’s really appreciating the two of them holding back during the Christmas break.

He’s a little sad for the two of them, that they won’t have  _ wedding _ pictures, but everyone else is doing their best to make up for it, and Elaine especially is taking arts-y pictures of the decoration and food and stuff.

Sitting around the fire pit doesn’t seem like a very traditional wedding thing to Julius, but roasting marshmallows is fun, and so are the stories Erin, Raf and Chaz have about Jared and Bryce. He barely manages to swallow his laughter when Bryce and Jared “retire” and Chaz whoops, because Jared would not appreciate him laughing and might withdraw his cooking.

It’s after the grooms have been gone and the get together feels even more informal that Erin and Chaz tell Raf and him about the bullshit that went down with both the Oilers and the Flames management.

“What the fuck,” Julius manages.

Chaz pats his knee consolingly. “That’s what I said, too,” he says. Julius doesn’t want to be consoled, he’s angry.

“Dad made the exact same face as you, for like, a week straight,” Erin says. “I was halfway expecting him to drive up to Edmonton and like, kill someone.”

“I help,” Julius offers. “Is easier for me to get away with. Make it look like an accident.”

* * *

Darryl doesn’t catch who it is that chirps Jared about the rings on his chain, but before he can even consider finding out, Jared turns bright red, from one second to the other. Julius, next to him, looks  _ delighted _ .

“Oooh, J Maths, what are the rings about?” Morris calls and obviously Darryl’s curious. It’s just that he would’ve satiated his curiosity in a one-on-one conversation, if at all. Rings seem like personal business, not locker room business. 

So he says: “You don’t have to tell these gossips, Jared,” just to make sure someone says it. 

Jared and Julius share a look – Jared a little tired, Julius very delighted now – and then Julius! Julius says: “Yes, Jared, what are the rings about?” and Jared sighs.

“I got married over the summer,” Jared announces. “It’s not a big deal.”

Darryl stares at the – well, Jared isn’t a rookie anymore, but only  _ just so _ . He’s like, what? Nineteen? Twenty?

“What?” someone says, and from another corner someone else asks: “Is this a joke?”, but neither Julius nor Jared are the type of play a joke like this, so Darryl manages: “Congratulations, kid.” and because he can’t help himself, he adds: “I didn’t know you were engaged.”

Jared, if possible, turns even redder. “I, uh, we kept it on the down low. But we were engaged for, uh, a while.”

“Childhood … sweetheart?” Darryl asks, catching himself before he says “girlfriend”, but before Jared can answer, he disappears in a Morris hug.

“J Maths! You didn’t tell us! You didn’t invite us! Didn’t even introduce us to your boo! You should invite them to come out with us some time!”

Jared has managed to free himself from the Morris hug, looking a little wild around the eyes. “My ‘boo’,” and Jared actually makes air quotes, “is back in Calgary, sorry Ben.” and most of the commotion has died down by now, people turning back to their clothes and bags – no one wants to stay longer than needed after a game like this. Ben, Jared and Julius are talking in their corner, and Darryl turns to his phone.

_ ‘one of last years rookies got married over the summer’ _ he types out. ‘ _ wedding gift?’ _ He’s sure his wife will catch his meaning.

He’s nearly done, when he hears: “What do you mean, there are no pictures? Did you  _ elope _ ?!” 

“I was invited,” Julius supplies, looking smug.

“Yeah, well, see if I’ll cook for you again, Julius!” Jared hisses, but he looks comfortable with Ben’s arm around his shoulders, so Darryl leaves them to it.

* * *

_ The end. _

_ (Until Ben finds out who Jared is married to.) _

**Author's Note:**

> I am also on [tumblr!](https://vanillivilovesreus.tumblr.com)


End file.
